To think a 3:20 finish is absurd?

But you said you can afford private...so what's the issue?

When you are a parent, you have to compromise and make adjustments. If it's your choice to have your children in school for the length of a traditional working day, then you will probably have to pay for the extra hours. Expecting state school teachers to add to their workload seems unreasonable to me.

I bet you’re please you posted OP! I can get what you are saying, my two are adults now and I managed to find a part time job during the school day. However, we have recently returned from Madeira, the school day there for juniors is much longer to allow for both parents to work full time.

So longer hours isnt the solution? You just dont want to pay for childcare at all?

In Sweden councils have to provide before/after school provision. It's usually provided at school but can be in another location. It means schools are often open from 6:30am to 6:30pm. Only for primary aged kids though, from the age of 12 kids are expected to be able to be home alone.

The before/after school hours are not led by teachers, so teachers' working hours remain the same. Instead, it's led by teaching assistants. My partner did this for a while, he'd often work 6:30-14:30, helping out in class during normal class times.

However, while it's available until 6:30pm, it's somewhat frowned upon to leave your kid in after school care that long every day. There is a high expectation on employers to offer flexible working options to parents. In many office based roles it's completely normal to see an exodus of parents around 3-4pm when they leave to pick up their kids, more so for the youngest ones.

Every private school in my city finishes at exactly the same time as the state schools. In fact my DS private school finishes at 3.15 and DDs state school at 3.20.
Where are you getting that private schools do a 9-5? They all have after school clubs, same as state school which you have to pay extra for, same as state school.

I work in an international school. Kids come in from 7.15, have to be in by 7.45, and from year 3 upwards they don't finish until 3.40. We have Friday afternoons off, which goes some way in compensating for the four long days.

I taught at a private school. We finished at 3.35 pm. Not all private schools finish late.
We had extra long holidays, 16 weeks a year.
You’d be moaning at trying to find childcare for 16 weeks.

Remembering what school is/was like, as a pupil, a parent, a mainstream teacher and then and advisory peripatetic teacher I can definitely say children learn loads in school.

Pretending they don't is lazy.

The school pick ups don’t last forever- it’s just while they are at primary. We used a mixture of me working part time, after school club, doing a reciprocal agreement with a friend to collect dc. It was a pita but didn’t last long and ultimately my dc are my responsibility. I lost a lot of money by going part time but it was our choice to have dc.

Then that moves the problem to covering childcare in holidays for working parents.

Some parents have wednesday off/ grandma etc. If not there is a school club (7:30-18:00) wednesday.

I’ll throw one example in.ill remove the children being tired and expected to not have downtime for now. Lots have picked up on that already.

From a teacher point of view because I was a teacher. I have children. So say the day finishes at a later time of 5, I’d then have to mark prep etc. basing it on the hours both me and my children did with a 3:15 finish, I wouldn’t be picking them up until at least 7. Lovely!

They don't. Private junior schools finish at 3.30. There is afterschool care at many (mostly outside providers, not the teachers). It is not more school, it is play based (no t play based learning. Actual playing, colouring etc). Those are payable separately.

Some schools have clubs when a child might do a day after school when they are a but older, but this is not at all the norm for under 7's.

Most private schools don't finish later than 4.30, I have children in 3 different schools and they all roughly start at 7.45 at the earliest and finish by 4.15.

Boarding schools are the same in that formal learning ends around that time and after school activities start or homework clubs etc go on until before supper.

I don't see why if you are earning an income and require longer hours in a state school you are reluctant to pay? Or reduce your hours if your pay doesn't cover it, which seems unlikely even on minimum wages.

I went to a private school which finished at, I think, 3.20 in primary and 3.45 in secondary.

I finished at 4:45, except Wednesdays when it was 1:45.

Quite a bit different.

Remember what school is like. How much do you think kids actually learn in school.

Surely this is a wind-up? No sane person would think that state schools should run from 8 to 6 p.m.! If you went to boarding school, as commented earlier, then you'd know that lessons certainly don't run from 8 to 6 p.m. As has been said numerous times, school is NOT childcare. If you need childcare outside of standard school hours, you must arrange and pay for it yourself.

I'm so confused that you keep harping on about how do private schools cope…. DS goes to a lovely private school and can stay until 6pm BUT lessons finish at 3.30, after that it's a choice of after school clubs or homework club until collection. Of course state schools can't offer this???

I don’t think it’s fair to burn out kids and make them hate education. It would really impact the kids and make them not want to go to school. I do agree that it should be the option of having extended times or childcare being free - but it’s not the world we live in unfortunately. How about we have a conversation about how work hours are too long and should be decreased.

Also, what about the teachers? They already work hard in the hours they currently do, they take their work home with them and are overworked as it is. Is that fair for them to be forced to do more hours? Teachers are leaving the education field as it is, how do you propose more workers to do it?

I imagine money for more staff?

When I was at private school we had break time 3.30 then did sport every day except Wednesday 4-5.20. Most state primaries don't have a dedicated team of sports staff. There would have been 320+ children all doing sport at the same time, across 4 different age groups. We must have had loads of PE teachers as we weren't doing it in huge groups either.

The issue is the COL crisis, not the school opening hours.

How about don’t have children if you don’t want to take care of them and sacrifice some of your precious time and life and with that comes your career to support and shape the life of them! It’s honestly absurd. I have a 3 year old. I have just spent the last 2 years and 2 months of that sending her to a childminder 4 days a week 4 days 07:30-4:30/5:30. I quit the other day she went to my mum or came to work with me. I have cried the last week because I’m pulling her out of her childminders I wish she home schooled because my god she’d of stayed forever. However I realised I paid ridiculous amounts of money for someone else to take care of my child I make my child leave the house at 07:10 every single morning and not return till 18:30 at night sometimes. I was only doing dinner bath and bed these nights and for what? To be counted as a number in a work place looking after children that was not mine. My child is much better for it staying at home with me now she’s much more happier and she’s going to a school nursery in January for 3 hours per day because I think that side of it is important learning, socialisation not heavily being attached to parents but 15 hours per week rather than 40+ hours a week away from home may suit us. I will find a job that works around her not the other way round.

my point is yes you need sanity; you need work for your own identity yes you also need socialisation as much as your child.. but you have children to give them a good life. To give them a well balanced supported loving happy life. You don’t have them to just toss them in day care and moan when the days at school aren’t long enough for you. I bet you’re the kind of parent that’ll vote for school holidays to shorten like children and the teachers don’t deserve a mental break.

@WhamBamThankU I wouldn’t bother with TouchoftheTism. S/he appears to be a bitter person who’s enjoyed hating on teachers. Some people are weird / sad / bored / uneducated (insert word of choice here)

BECAUSE THEY'RE KIDS!

Most yr 11 students already do an extra hour a day after school as it is, so that's a 420 finish. They're in school for 830. That's pretty similar to a job.
And it's tiring trying to learn all day, move round school, negotiate friendships etc.

When mine were in primary, they were up before 7, so I could get them to childcare before I went to work to teach teenagers. They weren't picked up until 6,or thereabouts. They finished school at 330, but there was no way they could have done school work until 6.

It's no longer kids struggle to transition into work when they supposedly can't cope with an 8 hour day at school. Kids in China are in school for about 14 1/2 hours a day and they seem to cope quite well.